Reviews of TRILL MATRIX at the Clemente

“Christina Massey works with repurposed beer cans so that their text and barcode become visual information rather than information intended to be read. Hidden Within (2018) is a flower-like form sitting on a low pedestal with three other of the artist’s works; it is composed of long petals made of differing materials, including the beer-can aluminum. Using industrial substances, Massey has created an image seemingly taken from nature–something as beautiful as if it had directly come from nature itself. “

“In Trill Matrix, “trill” alludes to a moment in hip-hop culture where the words “true” and “real” blended together to suggest authenticity and cultural ascendancy. Playing off this idea of reconciling two distinct words, artists on view in the exhibit remix disparate mediums to form new hybrids. Strips of fabric gathered together form a soft-sculpture-turned-light-installation, while works composed of glass and aluminum fragments hold court with another work re-claiming electronic wires and plastic into a single immersive sculpture. The network these works forms invites closer inspection, often bringing the visitor to realize a greater understanding of the beauty that lies in waste.

Christina Massey is one of the exhibiting artists whose works present the meeting point of upcycled materials and careful composition. The artist’s Crafty Collusions series brings together fragments from upcycled craft beer cans with a blend of other materials, cleverly juxtaposing the male-dominated industry of craft beer with the “femininity” of crafting. Massey reflected on the work involved in bridging the gaps while making mixed media artworks. “The materials in themselves bring certain complications, where one material doesn’t easily adhere to another,” noted Massey. “A certain amount of experimentation has to be done to find the right glues, mixture of paint, thickness of thread, etc., but I love that experimentation, that’s where you discover new things that maybe you didn’t realize were a possibility. That can be very freeing… just allowing yourself to manipulate, play and learn, admitting that the material is going to have a certain mind of its own.”